


I Wanna Hold Your Hand

by mosylu



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Art Museums, F/M, Fake Dating, Killervibe Week 2019, because your author is a nerd and a half, of a sort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 08:50:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20423225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mosylu/pseuds/mosylu
Summary: It's half-off day for couples at the art museum. Cisco's not going to let a little thing like them not actually being a couple stop them from getting that discount.Written for Killervibe Week Day 1: Fake Dating





	I Wanna Hold Your Hand

As they walked up to the museum’s front doors, Cisco squinted at the people going in. “Is it me, or are there a lot of couples today?”

Caitlin looked up from her phone, where she was studying the museum’s app, and looked around at the people going up the steps with them. All ages, races, and genders, but Cisco was right. There did seem to be a lot of couples in comparison with other kinds of groups. “Maybe they’re here on dates.”

He made a face. “To a museum? On a Saturday morning?”

She tapped around on her phone. “Don’t be like that. I actually really like museums as a first date. You get to take your time and talk and stroll around and - Oh, this might be why.”

“What?”

“It’s a special for this weekend. Couples get in half-off.”

“Two for one?” Cisco held the front door for Caitlin, and then an older lesbian couple behind her, who smiled at him before progressing through.

“Kind of.”

“I didn’t know museums did that.”

“Well, the exhibition I want to see is romantic art pieces. Romantic with a small r, not a capital R. So -” She waved her hand. “I guess that’s why. Publicity.”

“Hunh.” Cisco looked around the lobby at the hearts and lace, advertising the deal and the love-and-romance exhibition. Next to the stairs, he could see signs for the history of comics exhibition that was why he’d come here today. The plan had been for both of them to go see their things separately and then meet for lunch whenever they were done. “Hey, you know what - ”

“What?” She saw the look on his face. “Cisco, no.”

“Why? What’s the harm? We’re here together already.”

“We’re not a couple!”

He raised his brows at her. She didn’t have to sound that vehement. “What’s the problem if some docent or whoever thinks we are? Twofer admission is nothing to sneeze at.”

She wrinkled her nose at him. “You’re willing to pretend to be my date just to save fourteen-fifty?”

“In a heartbeat,” he said, grabbing her hand. “Come on. All we have to do is pretend for like ten minutes that we’re in love and then we’re in.”

“Mmmmm,” she said, sliding her eyes sideways at the line. She frowned at an old couple with matching canes who were gently bickering about something that had happened in 1973, and the pair of teenage nerds with matching Harvard t-shirts, making out energetically just behind them.

“If you feel that bad about it, you can stick a ten in the donation box on your way out.” He grinned at her. “What? You don’t think anybody will believe I could snag a woman like you?”

“Of course I don’t think that! I mean - ” She was blushing. “It’s just so silly.”

“What’s life without a little silliness?” He didn’t ask her if she thought the inverse, that she wouldn’t have been able to snag him. Obviously she could snag him. She could have him anytime she so much as crooked her finger … 

Huh. Where had that come from? 

“All right, fine,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Since you’re so determined.”

“Excellent,” he said, tugging her toward the line. 

She didn’t drop his hand once they had taken their places. It was cool and soft in his, familiar. He glanced sideways at her, wondering if she was annoyed that he’d basically pressured her into a fake relationship for the next ten minutes, and she gave him a little smile and an eyeroll. 

All right. She was okay. What was the harm? Just a game of pretend, that was all.

“So, lambchop,” he said. “What do you want to do after this? Where are we going for lunch?”

She rolled her eyes at him again for the silly pet name, but there was a smile playing around her lips. “How about that little place where we had our first date?”

“The bistro on the water?” He lowered his voice to a sexy purr. “You know I’m saving that for when I propose.”

For a moment he thought that had knocked her off her game, but she rolled with it beautifully. “Sweetheart, not that I’m not looking forward to that, but can you not make a huge spectacle of it? You know I hate people staring at me.”

“Come on, you’re not even going to let me get a mariachi band?”

She shook her head in disbelief. “What about a mariachi band says subtle?”

"Couple of guys with guitars?“

"I’ll accept one person with a violin.”

“Okaaaaaaaay,” he said. “Fine. But the ring is gonna knock your socks off.”

She beamed at him. “I would expect nothing less. Lambchop.”

“God, you two, get a room,” someone said from behind him.

“No,” Cisco said, and kissed Caitlin’s cheek. “I’m madly in love with this woman, and I don’t care who knows it.”

“Next,” said the bored kid behind the counter, and they stepped up, leaving the love-Grinch rolling his eyes behind them.

“Two please,” Cisco said, pulling out his credit card. “Obviously, we’re a couple, so we’ll need that discount.”

“Uh-huh,” the kid said, ringing them up and pushing the tickets over the counter. “Next!”

“Ha,” Cisco said as they walked away from the line. “And we’re in." 

"Your cunning plan worked,” Caitlin said, amused. “What are you going to do with your ill-gotten riches?”

“Probably buy you lunch,” he said cheerfully, and realized he was still holding her hand. He let go with more regret than he was prepared for. “So, what do you say? Meet back here in two hours?”

She glanced over her shoulder. “You know, the kid at the ticket kiosk is looking this way. Maybe you should come into the exhibit room with me?”

“Keep up the charade?” he said. “Really?”

She widened her eyes at him. “He might just decide to dispatch some hulking security goons after us for the fourteen-fifty. I don’t know about you, but Killer Frost doesn’t feel like working today.”

It surprised a laugh out of him. Caitlin so often played the straight man to his goofiness that he forgot she could be silly, too. “Okay,” he said, weaving his fingers through hers. “In the name of plausible deniability.”

Cisco meant to hang with her for about a minute and then go off to his exhibition. Really, he did. But his attention was caught by one of the first paintings - a man walking along, holding a woman’s hand while she floated above him like a balloon. They both had giant grins on their faces, beaming with almost childlike glee.

“That’s the artist and his wife,” Caitlin said, reading the plaque next to it. 

“That’s kind of sweet,” he said, tilting his head. 

“Right? They’re just so happy to be together." 

They meandered through the first room, looking at the art and talking about it. Then the second. Somehow, he still had hold of her hand.

The way the museum was laid out, they had to cross the lobby to get to the rest of the rooms, and Cisco saw Caitlin glance up at the sign for the exhibit he’d wanted to see. She went pink. 

"I’m sorry,” she said. “I just realized I made you spend an hour with me.”

“I love spending time with you,” he said. “And your thing is really cool and sweet.”

“Yes, but it’s not why you came here.” She let go of his hand. “You can go see your exhibit now. Meet me at noon?”

“Noon,” he echoed. 

She shot him another smile and started to go toward the next room of the romance exhibit.

He yelled out, “Hey, Caitlin!” His voice echoed in the marble lobby, and people in line looked over.

She whipped around. “Yes?" 

"You, uh, you wanna come upstairs with me?”

She came back to him, walking up until they were less than a foot apart. “To see the history of comics?”

“Sure. I know it’s not your thing, but - ”

“Well, this wasn’t your thing and you still came with me,” she said. She smiled suddenly, and as sometimes happened, he thought, _Holy shit, she’s just really gorgeous_. “Yes. Show me what you’ve been looking forward to.”

* * *

They ended up spending most of the day at the art museum, wandering through the rooms, pausing for lunch at the cafe, talking about the art and about a million other topics. Although he’d spent countless days with her, this one felt different somehow.

Not just another day. Something new.

When the museum closed, the security guards herded them out like patient border collies. They found themselves on the steps, still talking, as the sun dropped toward the horizon.

When Cisco’s stomach growled, he realized he was starving. The sandwiches at the museum’s cafe had been good, but they’d probably trekked four or five miles around the building that day.

“Hungry?” Caitlin said, laughing. “We should go get something.”

“Yeah, we should,” Cisco said. “There actually is a pretty good bistro on the water that I know. My cousin’s part-owner. If I text him, we can probably get the family rate.”

She tilted her head at him, her eyes impish. “Just to be clear, is this the first date or the proposal?”

“Well,” he said with complete seriousness. “I was thinking first date.”

She looked as if she wanted to laugh for a minute, then stopped.

“I mean,” he said, suddenly awkward. “If that’s what you want to do. Or -” Oh. Oh boy. Oh shit. The Awkward had turned up, a vampire on their friendship, invited in by his sudden _what-if_ moment.

“Yes!” she said. “Yes. That’s what I want.”

“Great,” he said, a bubble of happiness expanding in his chest. “Shall we, then?" 

She took his hand, and he remembered the first painting they’d seen, the artist holding hands with his wife as she floated above his head. 

Cisco thought he knew how she felt.

FINIS

**Author's Note:**

> If you’re curious, [this](https://www.wikiart.org/en/marc-chagall/the-promenade-1918) is the painting Cisco is referring to. Let’s all pretend that a midsize Midwestern city could get this on loan.


End file.
